VIETNAM. Welcome to our rolling coverage of The Trinity Forum 2024, live from the Gem Center in Ho Chi Minh City (5-6 November).
The world’s leading airport commercial revenues event is owned by The Moodie Davitt Report and organised in partnership with Airports Council International (ACI) Asia-Pacific & Middle East and ACI World.
The Trinity Forum 2024 is co-hosted by Airports Corporation of Vietnam and IPP Group (IPPG).
Look out for our full report in a special post-Trinity eZine, out later this month.
Wednesday 6 November
Qatar Duty Free announced as The Trinity Forum 2025 host
The Trinity Forum will return to Qatar in 2025, with Qatar Duty Free announced tonight as the host for next year’s event. The news was revealed during the Gala Dinner at the Gem Center in Ho Chi Minh City.
We are excited to take the travel retail industry to such an outstanding location. Qatar Duty Free unprecedentedly holds the titles of Airport Food & Beverage Offer of the Year from The Moodie Davitt Report-owned FAB Awards and Frontier Airport Retailer of the Year for the second consecutive year.
A full story will follow on our website.
Gala Dinner
16:30 Closing remarks
16:05 Case study: Denver International Airport
16:00 Dubai Duty Free draw
15:45 Reinventing the airport experience
In this session, moderated by Pragma Consulting CEO Alex Avery, Travel Food Services Executive Director Varun Kapur and Nestlé International Travel Retail (NITR) Global Head of Category Development Nicola Wells discussed how travel retail stakeholders can reinvent and reinvigorate the airport experience to better meet evolving consumer behaviours and expectations.
“Do we really need to reinvent or do we need to reinvigorate. What can we do within the framework that exists?” asked Wells as she explored NITR’s ‘Antidote to Apathy.’
She said: “At NITR, our ambition is to make food the number one most purchased category in travel retail.”
“Food is the biggest driver across category spend and can help us during these challenging times. If we’re not reinventing, it’s about reinvigorating. Food can be an ambassador for sense of place, it can be used to surprise and delight, it can also blend and blur what was once one-dimensional.”
In a dynamic presentation, Kapur highlighted how concept and convenience are driving TFS’s F&B and lounge strategy. He said: “While we’re introducing several global F&B concepts to India for the first time, there’s plenty of excitement around curated concepts.”
Kapur highlighted several case studies including Samba Square in Goa, South Indian food concept idli.com and Bombay Brasserie. “Our ATV growth is +20% driven by premiumisation and concepts such as these,” he added.
“In our top six airports over the last 12 months, the top performing brands have been TFS-curated brands. This shows how curating, innovating and customising F&B are creating real value in these key markets.”
In addition to curated concepts, TFS is also bringing convenience and efficiency to travellers with a diverse menu of meals, beverages and quick-service options with delivery straight to the gate within 15 minutes.
“Lounges are something we are really passionate about as a business opportunity,” Kapur added. “Araya is our lounge brand and really showcases how we do lounges differently at TFS. Every airport should have its own sense of place and not a cookie-cutter lounge concept.”
TFS operates the Adani and Zero Eight Zero lounges in India, Global Lounge in Malaysia, and Kyra Lounge in Hong Kong among many others.
14:45 The Vietnam opportunity
14:30 Airport Dimensions and SACSO announce Vietnam partnership
Global airport lounge and travel experience company Airport Dimensions has confirmed a strategic partnership with airport commercial services provider Southern Airports Services (SASCO), a subsidiary of Airports Corporation of Vietnam.
The partnership was announced on stage at The Trinity Forum this afternoon by Airport Dimensions President EMEA & APAC Errol McGlothan (pictured below right) and Southern Airports Services (a subsidiary of Airports Corporation of Vietnam) Chief Executive Officer Nguyen Van Hung Cuong (left).
12:40 Future-proofing the travel retail opportunity
This session featured Newmark Executive Managing Director Simon Black; Suntory Global Spirits Revenue Growth Director Global Travel Retail Ashish Sagar and MATARAT Holding General Manager Commercial (Non-Aero) Marcus Spahn who talked about how the channel can evolve to maintain relevance in a changing world.
Spahn shared the key pillars of MATARAT’s Vision 2030 goal and the strategic ‘building blocks’ required to achieve that goal. He said: “What differentiates us from other markets is that we are operating as an ecosystem.
“We are looking at the wider infrastructure and socio-economic development of the entire Kingdom. By 2030, our ambition is to have an operational PAX capacity of 330 million. In terms of traffic development we want to cater to 250 international destinations. In terms of commercial, we’re aiming for 45% of non-aeronautical revenues, which is ambitious. Finally, we want to have four of our airports in the top 100 of Skytrax rankings.”
Customer-centricity, experiential, sense of place, digital, personalised, partnerships and sustainability are the building blocks of Spahn and MATARAT’s future-proofing strategy.
Black urged delegates to place people at the heart of their commercial strategies. He said: “The aviation industry is responsible for 87 million jobs and indirectly responsible for 300 million jobs worldwide. We must focus on our our passengers, partners, consumers, guests and employees to future-proof our amazing industry.
“We’re fortunate enough to live in an era with amazing technological advancement but that should not come at the cost of focusing on people. Physical retail is not dead. It will continue to have big relevance in the future.”
Sagar underlined travel retail’s role as a brand-building, profit-generation and talent-development channel and shared how brands can best capitalise the travel retail opportunity.
He said: “Brands need to adapt to changes in consumer behaviour, deliver value across key stakeholders and simultaneously navigate the external landscape.
“To adapt to changing consumer behaviours, brands need to keep up with the evolution of the consumer, then adapt their product offerings and shopping experiences accordingly. Brands need to be agile to navigate the external landscape which means embracing technology and being flexible amid global marketing changes and regulatory evolutions.”
12:00 Lagardère Travel Retail leader Dag Rasmussen gives an upbeat outlook for the industry
Lagardère Travel Retail Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dag Rasmussen shared his customary optimism for the future of travel retail in an absorbing interview with Martin Moodie.
“If we do our job correctly, travel retail has a great future,” he said. “We need good strategy and understand the evolving nature of passengers; they have free time and passenger numbers will keep increasing even in the face of economic challenges. The fundamentals for success are there.”
Rasmussen said the decision of passengers to use retail and F&B in airports is made quickly, so how these concessions are presented, variety in product assortments, having well-trained staff and easy payment methods are key.
He noted an important target for Lagardère Travel Retail’s product assortment in duty-free stores is that 30% of the ranges should evoke a sense of place. “If you are surprised each time you enter a store, you will buy more. Duty-free stores should not be uniform across locations because then people will buy only what they need and consequently spend less.”
An interesting discussion ensued surrounding airport-retailer contracts and Rasmussen’s preference for a profit sharing model. “Then you have a full alignment in your objectives,” he said.
He added he believes the Minimum Annual Guarantee system is not fair in many cases. “We need a rebalancing of risk and reward,” he asserted.
11:20 How to keep pace with or supersede passenger traffic growth
SSP Group CEO Patrick Coveney and Dubai Duty Free Managing Director Ramesh Cidambi discussed how their respective businesses are driving penetration and conversion amid a challenging retail environment.
According to Cidambi, a drop in penetration and spend per passenger, alongside continuous price increases from brands have created a disconnect between passenger growth and sales for Dubai Duty Free. Commenting on how the retailer is navigating that landscape, Cidambi said: “We are talking to each and every employee to motivate them to drive penetration and conversion on the shop floor.
“The second aspect is communication. It’s a difficult time, spend and penetration is down and all of us need to sharpen up,” Cidambi added.
“The last aspect is to continue investing in the retail offer. We’re renovating our Arrivals stores in terminals 1, 2 and 3 with new stores in concourses B and A opening soon. As simplistic as this sounds, the reality is that if the offer is fresh and the retail area is attractive – passengers will spend more money.”
Food & beverage operator SSP recorded positive results this year. Coveney said: “We are a US$5 billion business and we recorded +17% sales growth in this year.”
What’s driving this performance? Coveney said: “We’re having good results on average spend. We operate six formats: bars, casual dining, quick-service restaurants, coffee shops, restaurants and lounges. We wanted to have more format-specific expertise in those six areas.
“I felt that we were not strong enough in our bar and casual-dining proposition and put a lot of effort behind that in terms of design capability, customer engagement and the brands we’ve pulled in globally and locally. As a result, we’ve seen a huge step up in sales for bars and casual dining. The essence is trying to understand who our customers are and what our clients are looking for.”
Partnership is crucial to the SSP approach, Coveney said: “We are committed to growing the pie together. To do that we need to think of the channel as a single system. This idea that the commercial model is fixed is a total nonsense. The models are innovating just as quickly as the customer propositions are innovating.”
10:00 ANARA on the big non-aeronautical revenue issues
9:30 Taking customer service to new heights
TAV Operation Services CEO and TAV Airport Holdings CCO Aude Ferrand talked about the pillars of TAV’s customer service strategy. She said: “From retail to lounges, TAV and Groupe ADP share the same mission and that is to create memorable experiences.
“The first part is to create memorable environments that answer all customer needs no matter what they are. Because customer travel will be memorable if all their needs are fulfilled.”
“Quiet assistance is another key element,” she added. “Services such as fast track, meet and greet need to be both efficient and discrete to propose seamless travel without intrusion.
“The third pillar is to have a ‘shop, dine and rest’ offer that caters to all customers while creating surprises. At Istanbul Airport for example, you can buy souvenirs at the bazaar but also discover luxury products in the boutique.
“The last one is personalised service,” she said. “We try to offer personalised service not just in travel retail but also in the lounges. This is more than WiFi and good food. For example, in the lounge we offer à la carte menus to give customers exactly what they want.”
As TAV welcomes the next generation of travellers it is focusing on emotions, personalisation and social & environmental impact to engage with Gen Z customers.
Ferrand believes that loyalty is “a never-ending story” and highlighted how segmentation and “glocalisation” are crucial to driving airport hospitality.
9:10 Walking the walk on consumer centricity
Click on the YouTube video above to watch The Moodie Davitt Report’s full video tribute to Colm McLoughlin
Underlining the importance of consumer-centricity in the airports of today and tomorrow, Griffiths said: “The Trinity needs to work as a circular whole that puts the customer first. In the post-COVID world, customer behaviours have been changed by technology and we have to embrace that. One of the biggest challenges is that many airports are at capacity, and we somehow have to make the best of what we’ve got.
“If we can allow brands the freedom to express themselves, give them the right location, create the right adjacencies, facilitate that efficiently through seamless operations then that’s the way forward.
“We can all do better by collaborating and using the science and marketing might that brands have invested in to create a completely holistic retail environment. This is a real call to action to get our act together, get around the table and change the world.”
Offering a final message to the industry, Griffiths said: “This is a time of great change and with great change comes great opportunity. To make the most of that – let’s make it happen together.”
Tuesday 5 November
Joyous scenes from The Trinity Forum cocktail evening, Rex Hotel
19:45 The Trinity Forum 2024 opening cocktail comes to life at the Rex Hotel
17:30 IPPG and CDFG sign strategic partnership
In an important moment, Imex Pan Pacific Group (IPPG) and China Duty Free Group (CDFG) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to create a strategic partnership between the respective companies. The MOU was signed by VIPs from both companies and witnessed by guests including Martin Moodie and Dermot Davitt from The Moodie Davitt Report.
Recognising the long-standing relationship and mutual interests between Vietnam and China, this MOU aims to foster deeper partnership between IPPG and CDFG.
According to the partners, the agreement will enhance mutual growth, explore business opportunities and promote tourism between the two countries, contributing to enhancing bilateral relations.
The MOU will bring together key players in the travel retail and tourism sectors, each with a proven track record of success and innovation.
16:35 Case studies in adapting to new consumer mindsets
This session, moderated by Pragma Consulting CEO Alex Avery, featured an impressive roster of speakers, including Heathrow Airport Retail Director Fraser Brown; CAVU Experiences Head of Growth Robert Hassard and Malaysia Airport Holdings Berhad Senior General Manager Hani Ezra Hussin.
Brown presented how Heathrow is blending digital and physical innovation to address the issue of limited space. He said: “We are growing our passenger numbers as an industry, which is great, but for many of us in legacy airports we have a space problem. We have the capacity to process passengers but we are constrained in the space we need to host passengers. This is because hosting involves hospitality.”
Brown added: “So, we’ve got constrained terminals and we want to deliver great service and grow passenger spend. When you have limited space and you don’t have ‘elastic walls’, then I argue that digital can be your elastic wall.
“Digital gives us the ability to offer more in terms of range and price than a physical space can allow. Ultimately, leveraging digital can deliver a great experience for both the passenger and the shareholder.”
To maximise yield and optimise conversion, Heathrow has launched a digital ‘Curated Marketplace’ which brings together world-renowned retailers and service providers. He added: “We are also leveraging Heathrow’s fulfilment capability to create best-in-class convenience, single payment, click and collect, virtual retailers, order to satellite, lounge gate or even collect on return.”
For current physical operators at Heathrow, the Marketplace solution enables brands to sell an extended range of products or categories that are not stocked within their terminal stores.
CAVU Experiences Head of Growth Robert Hassard offered different case studies on how passenger perceptions of airport lounges have changed.
Hassard said: “During and after COVID, lounges became a ‘safe space’ with awareness growing significantly. Lounges searched per passenger has grown +76% in the pandemic years with demands for lounges at an all-time high. Access through partners continues to grow and ATV has grown +40% as passengers are more willing to pay for high-level experiences.”
He explained that lounges are facing a capacity crunch and offered solutions on how airport operators can meet growing demand. He highlighted pre-booking, good partnerships and customer data as key enablers to elevate the lounge experience.
Malaysia Airport Holdings Berhad (MAHB) Senior General Manager Hani Ezra Hussin illustrated how MAHB is showcasing Malaysia’s distinctive cultural heritage to stay “always in, in a world of always on travellers.”
She said: “Travel shopping is witnessing a shift from cautious and casual to intentional spending. With less dwell time and high digital distraction, travellers want to make the most of their available time and are expecting capsuled cultural shopping experiences.”
She also highlighted Malaysia as ‘Asia’s Cultural Melting Pot’ and underlined MAHB’s approach of bringing ‘Malaysian uniqueness’ to life by delivering authentic and immersive cultural experiences such as cultural heritage pop-ups.
In addition, she underlined MAHB’s diverse and locally driven F&B offer which comprises 40% local Malaysian delights and 60% international brands resulting in a +40% increase in F&B sales compared to 2019.
16:15 The human touch: Nurturing a service culture
Jaquie Scammell, award-winning author of Service Habits 2nd ed and The Future of Service is 5D, explored how the industry can better embrace a service-oriented culture.
Scammel is a thought-leader in the field of service and CEO and Founder of ServiceQ – a business which partners with organisations to reimagine their service culture by developing conscious service leaders, engaged employees and loyal customers.
Scammel said: “A service culture can have many different interpretations. To promote a service culture in your organisations: first, your employees need permission to step outside of their technical job and assist a travel customer. Second, they need you to be explicit about what that looks like.
“Third, they need you to share with them and inspire belief that their job is not just technical and that the other half of their job is to serve.”
She added: “Most of your customers have heightened emotions when in your care and are stressed out, even the frequent flyers. Things such as strict timings, deadlines, loud PA announcements, keeping an eye out for children/family and dealing with crowded spaces all contribute to airport anxiety. Thanks to the airport’s high-stress environment, customer expectations are evolving.”
Scammel then presented the results of Melbourne Airport’s ‘Stepping Forward’ programme, which has achieved strong levels of advocacy among travellers.
The programme emphasises airport reputation and status, customer happiness, cost savings of retaining staff and improves productivity and efficiency.
15:30 Avolta CEO Xavier Rossinyol on the state of the travel retail industry
15:00 Travel retail opportunities knock in Riyadh
14:30 Charting the evolving China travel retail market
China Duty Free Group (CDFG) Assistant General Manager Michelle Sun shared her insights into the continued recovery of China’s travel market.
Sun said: “While China’s overall travel market is undergoing a rapid recovery and domestic consumption is growing, consumer demand has not yet rebounded as strongly as expected.”
Commenting on how CDFG is capitalising on the rebound of China travel and growing demand for home-grown brands, Sun presented the retailer’s ‘China Chic’ approach covering beauty, athleisure, digital products and jewellery.
“Despite the challenging market environment marked by a slowing domestic consumption and waning consumer sentiment, we have witnessed a remarkable emergence of China Chic brands,” Sun said.
“These brands have captured the hearts of young consumers. Gen Z consumers account for 74% of total local brand consumption, making them the primary driving force behind this trend.”
CDFG is offering strong portfolio of C-beauty brands, offering dedicated spaces.
The retailer recently hosted the ‘China-chic: Jinjiang Athleisure Brands’ launch event in Haikou, showcasing a diverse range of Chinese brands including Xtep, FILA, 361, Kelme, Shua and Lilanz. It is also shining the light on Chinese jewellery maisons Lao Miao, Lukfook and Chow Tai Fook.
Sun added: “In the first three quarters of this year, we have introduced 165 new brands across various categories. More than 40% of these are Chinese brands. These initiatives have not only driven incremental sales, but also foster a strong sense of identity and belonging to our consumers.”
She also discussed how CDFG is placing more importance on experiential value as consumers, particularly VIP customers, begin to prioritise experiences. She said: “While still in the in the early stage, this trend is also emerging among Chinese consumers who are placing increasing importance on experiential value.”
Sun illustrated CDFG’s consumer-centric approach to innovation and highlighted the CDFG Membership programme as a case study. “Our membership base has grown to nearly 37 million, with over 10 million active members each with an average annual spend of more than US$571. Among them over 300,000 high-tier Platinum and Diamond members have an even higher annual spend exceeding US$7,100.”
An excellent case study for how CDFG is innovating in terms of retail experiences is the Malt & More Whisky by cdf.
Sun said: “This innovative and immersive whisky experience centre features five distinct zones: whisky culture and appreciation, brand personalisation, whisky knowledge, retail sales and interactive experiences. With a size of over 3,000sq m, the store aims to provide consumers with a more engaging experience to foster a broader whisky market.”
Sun also highlighted The Beauty Concierge and L’OCCITANE Hotel animation at the cdf Sanya International Duty Free Shopping Complex as two other excellent examples of CDFG’s omnichannel and experience-led innovation strategy.
14:30 Dubai Duty Free Finest Surprise draw
13:30 Lunch sponsored by Qatar Duty Free
12:25 Vision 2034 – How will travel retail evolve over the next decade
In this session, The Moodie Davitt Report Founder & Chairman Martin Moodie and Cappell Consulting LLC Founder and President Daniel Cappell moderated a session with cross-category brand leaders and airport service providers to explore how the channel will evolve over the next ten years.
Speakers included L’Oréal Travel Retail Asia Pacific Managing Director Jesús Abia; Airport Dimensions CEO Mignon Buckingham; Mondelez World Travel Retail Managing Director Jaya Singh; and Diageo Global Travel Commercial Director APAC, MENA and India Sandra Tassilly.
Singh urged the industry to adapt to strengthen relevance, to drive conversion especially as it is challenged by falling conversion rates. He said: “We see passenger numbers exploding but we see spend coming down. We see penetration and conversion at best flatlining. Is this a cause of concern? Yes.
“But I believe the future is bright because we have been through that curve before and we know that we can pull together to ensure that we have a bright future.”
According to Singh, the travel retail chocolate business is a US$4 billion category that is a 3% share of the global travel retail industry worth US$135 billion. He said: “We are going to see approximately 1.8 to 1.9 billion travellers this year. That represents 22% of the world’s population in a concentrated airport environment. There is a huge opportunity that is being missed.”
He added: “If you want to realise a fantastic travel retail opportunity, we need to scale up the winning formula. The future of travel retail is relevance.”
According to Singh, key pillars to strengthening relevance include shared success metrics to drive penetration and conversion through evolved price pack architecture, personalisation at scale and reimagining shopper value to turn time in-store to sales.
She highlighted how 50% of airport operator respondents said that airport spaces should be used for flexible and modular purposes that can evolve with changing concession needs and passenger demands.
Buckingham also presented examples of how Airport Dimensions is partnering with brands to capitalise on these insights and drive growth.
Abia, who is at the helm of L’Oréal Travel Retail Asia Pacific as the beauty giant navigates a challenging landscape in the region, expressed his optimism for the future of the industry. He said: “The beauty market is booming. By 2030, there will be 600 million more consumers in the beauty sector showing there is still a massive appetite for beauty. In terms of share of wallet, beauty is still number one. However, only one in ten travellers buy beauty in travel retail, which translates to a huge opportunity.
“In this increasingly digitalised world, I strongly believe that consumers are becoming phygital natives. This means most consumers will see and explore brands online first.
“Travel retail will be a place where they can discover the brand physically in-store,” he added. “At retail touchpoints, our beauty brands use a fantastic blend of immersive AI and digital, transforming beyond just a point of transaction, to a source of memorable brand experiences both physically and digitally.”
Abia highlighted recent Lancôme activations and flagship openings in Singapore Changi Airport and at the cdf Sanya International Duty Free Shopping Complex Global Beauty Plaza as case studies of how L’Oréal Travel Retail is adapting to create the beauty retail of the future.
Tassilly gave a preview of Diageo Global Travel’s vision for the future. She began by reinforcing the company’s ambition to double the size of the spirits category by 2030.
She said: “We can achieve this together by driving more footfall, ensuring that we continue to convert more, but also by compromising with each other. There is no partnership without transparency. If we have one common goal we can make this happen.
“As we continue to innovate with our travel retail expressions, we looked at the latest trends such as the acceleration of the tequila category. We pushed the boundaries. We disrupted with our activations. With Don Julio, we put DJs in silent airport, we delivered personalisation within seconds with Johnnie Walker. We continue to listen to what is important for the industry and for the planet.”
Tassilly also presented an innovative retail concept called ‘The Exploratorium of Spirits’, which has a focus on experience. She said: “We believe at Diageo that we need to step out of our comfort zone. We are very good at innovating, understanding trends, shoppers and travellers. But if we as an industry sit together and look at how we can design the future of the traveller together, then we can really unlock the future of travel retail. That can start today, in this room.”
11:55
11:15 The greenfield airport opportunity: Perspectives from Vietnam, Australia and India
10:45 Coffee break with Nestlé International Travel Retail
10:15 Pioneering the future of elevated airport experiences
In an inspiring keynote speech, Qatar Airways Chief Retail and Hospitality Officer Thabet Musleh took delegates on a journey which illustrated how Qatar Duty Free, Qatar Airways and Hamad International Airport are elevating airport experiences through collaboration and imagination.
He said: “I genuinely believe, and I’ll prove to you today, that when the people in this room come together and create amazing things, they will be able to deliver great commercial benefits.”
Musleh underscored the power of Qatar Duty Free, Qatar Airways and Hamad International Airport’s integrated ecosystem. He said: “What we have is an integrated ecosystem, which is one of a kind. We’re doing more than just imagining. We’re turning great, groundbreaking ideas into reality.
“We’re pioneering a future of elevated airport experiences, and an integrated system does deliver a unique advantage. Having the airline, airport and retailer as one allows us to operate as a true Trinity when it comes to collaboration and data sharing.
“Most importantly, what it allows us to do is create a seamless experience for our customers. We know our passengers and we are able to combine and mine all that information to help us and our partners make accurate decisions based on data.
“We’re able to understand who our passengers are, what nationality they are, what age they are, where they travel to and how often they travel. We’re leveraging these insights to make strategic, data driven decisions.”
Notably, Musleh debuted Qatar Duty Free’s 36Q data sharing platform which will be accessible to its partners on 1 January 2025. The ground-breaking data platform, three years in the making, offers in-depth and real-time data on the Hamad International Airport traveller from age, nationality, sex, frequency of travel, what they’ve bought, what shops they’ve brought from and where they are flying to.
He added: “This platform offers everything to enable you and us to deliver great commercial benefits. This data will be available to our partners at no charge.”
Musleh also underscored the importance of using data to “create the ultimate customer experience”. He said: “We’re making sure that we deliver something for everyone no matter what their budget is. We’ve got everything from basic needs, the ultimate luxury and everything in between, not just with retail but with experiences too.
“This year we are +29% above last year. I made a promise to our partners in Cannes last year that we are going to double our business in three years and we are going to deliver that through data. Let’s elevate airport experiences all over the world together.”
Watch the YouTube video above to see how imagination becomes reality at Hamad International Airport with Qatar Duty Free
09:00 Welcome and opening addresses
Watch the full video tribute to Colm McLoughlin by clicking the YouTube link above
The Trinity Forum 2024 officially opens with the theme ‘Driving innovation to remain relevant within an evolving consumer landscape’. Click the YouTube link above to watch the full opening video.
Monday 4 November
4 November
